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Southwest Florida jobless rate drops to 7.2 percent

Published: Friday, March 29, 2013 at 10:27 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, March 29, 2013 at 4:57 p.m.

The economic recovery made itself felt during February, with Southwest Florida's jobless rate falling more than a half-percentage point to 7.2 percent.

Sarasota County showed the biggest decline: a full percentage point, but both Manatee and Charlotte counties shared in the good news, data released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity showed.

The February report came after a January where the region's jobless rate hardly budged but a month also marked by word that there had been 64,000 more Floridians employed than economists first thought.

The drop in the unemployment rate was much larger in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties than that seen across Florida, though the statewide figures are seasonally adjusted — a statistical process to smooth out the effects of factors like agricultural production and consumer consumption.

Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in February, down 0.2 percentage points from a revised 7.9 percent in January. But last month's rate was a full 1.3 percentage points from a year ago.

“Today's employment data shows that Florida has taken another step down the long road to recovery,” said Sean Snaith, an economist with the University of Central Florida who said that the Sunshine State is on track to outpace the nation in the recovery for the first time this year.

“We are already seeing that transition here, with Florida inching ahead of the nation.”

Southwest Florida gained 4,400 jobs over the year, led by professional and business services, which accounted for 2,500 of those jobs, the DEO reported.

Compared with other metro areas in Florida, the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota area's 8.5 percent annual job growth rate in this white-collar arena was the third highest in the state, behind only Palm Coast and Port St. Lucie on Florida east coast.

The business services category is a grab-bag of jobs that includes information technology, accounting, architectural design and legal positions.

“These are largely white-collar type,” Snaith said. “This is the sector that we believe is going to get back to pre-recession levels sooner than any other.”

The candidate pool for those types of jobs — many of which require very specific skills and experience levels — is getting tight, said Ryan Skubis, who oversees Florida operations for Robert Half International from the staffing firm's St. Petersburg office.

While the overall unemployment rate remains higher than 7 percent in Florida, the measure for some of these skilled white-collar positions can be as low as 3 percent. “We are seeing candidates starting to get multiple offers in the last two-three months,” Skubis said.

“Sarasota, for us, is thriving,” said Jennifer Kochilaris, an Adecco regional vice president who oversees the company's southwestern and southeastern Florida offices from Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. “We are starting to see more and more jobs come through our doors, more customers reaching out to us.”

One worker who just leveraged herself into a new position is Sonia Savage, who helps would-be solar electric and solar hot water customers pick out a system at Solar Direct in South Manatee County.

Savage was unemployed when she got hired a month ago, but only for a few weeks.

“I found a job pretty quick,” she said. “I kind of got lucky.”

Also nudging this region's jobless rate lower has been a recovering real estate market, both in existing homes and new construction.

As with other high-skilled jobs, the region's home builders — who filed 25 percent more permits last year — are having difficulty finding workers licensed in masonry or block construction, framing, drywall, plumbing and electrical work.

There were 48,000 new construction jobs nationally during February.

The DEO reported Friday that 128,100 jobs have been added in Florida during the past year. Officially, there were 729,000 total jobless Floridians in February, out of a work force of 9,427,000.

But even with the state's economy improving, that does not necessarily mean people laid off in the past few years are finding work, said Snaith, the UCF economist.

The state's “labor-force participation rate” — the percentage of working-age Floridians with a job or looking for one — has remained at roughly 60 percent since last year, Snaith noted.

“As the labor-force participation rate rises, further declines in the unemployment rate become more difficult and will require more robust job growth,” he said.

Sarasota County posted a jobless rate of 7.2 percent last month, down from 8.2 percent in January.

Manatee's rate was 7.3 percent, down from 7.7 percent during the prior month, while Charlotte's was 7.4 percent, down from 8.1 percent.

That still represented 27,000 people who are officially unemployed in the region out of a work force of 371,733.

<p>The economic recovery made itself felt during February, with Southwest Florida's jobless rate falling more than a half-percentage point to 7.2 percent.</p><p>Sarasota County showed the biggest decline: a full percentage point, but both Manatee and Charlotte counties shared in the good news, data released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity showed.</p><p>The February report came after a January where the region's jobless rate hardly budged but a month also marked by word that there had been 64,000 more Floridians employed than economists first thought.</p><p>The drop in the unemployment rate was much larger in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties than that seen across Florida, though the statewide figures are seasonally adjusted — a statistical process to smooth out the effects of factors like agricultural production and consumer consumption.</p><p>Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in February, down 0.2 percentage points from a revised 7.9 percent in January. But last month's rate was a full 1.3 percentage points from a year ago.</p><p>“Today's employment data shows that Florida has taken another step down the long road to recovery,” said Sean Snaith, an economist with the University of Central Florida who said that the Sunshine State is on track to outpace the nation in the recovery for the first time this year.</p><p>“We are already seeing that transition here, with Florida inching ahead of the nation.”</p><p>Southwest Florida gained 4,400 jobs over the year, led by professional and business services, which accounted for 2,500 of those jobs, the DEO reported.</p><p>Compared with other metro areas in Florida, the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota area's 8.5 percent annual job growth rate in this white-collar arena was the third highest in the state, behind only Palm Coast and Port St. Lucie on Florida east coast.</p><p>The business services category is a grab-bag of jobs that includes information technology, accounting, architectural design and legal positions.</p><p>“These are largely white-collar type,” Snaith said. “This is the sector that we believe is going to get back to pre-recession levels sooner than any other.”</p><p>The candidate pool for those types of jobs — many of which require very specific skills and experience levels — is getting tight, said Ryan Skubis, who oversees Florida operations for Robert Half International from the staffing firm's St. Petersburg office.</p><p>While the overall unemployment rate remains higher than 7 percent in Florida, the measure for some of these skilled white-collar positions can be as low as 3 percent. “We are seeing candidates starting to get multiple offers in the last two-three months,” Skubis said.</p><p>While Robert Half scouts for hard-to-fill skill sets, Adecco Staffing fills rank-and-file administrative and industrial positions.</p><p>“Sarasota, for us, is thriving,” said Jennifer Kochilaris, an Adecco regional vice president who oversees the company's southwestern and southeastern Florida offices from Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. “We are starting to see more and more jobs come through our doors, more customers reaching out to us.”</p><p>One worker who just leveraged herself into a new position is Sonia Savage, who helps would-be solar electric and solar hot water customers pick out a system at Solar Direct in South Manatee County.</p><p>Savage was unemployed when she got hired a month ago, but only for a few weeks.</p><p>“I found a job pretty quick,” she said. “I kind of got lucky.”</p><p>Also nudging this region's jobless rate lower has been a recovering real estate market, both in existing homes and new construction.</p><p>As with other high-skilled jobs, the region's home builders — who filed 25 percent more permits last year — are having difficulty finding workers licensed in masonry or block construction, framing, drywall, plumbing and electrical work.</p><p>There were 48,000 new construction jobs nationally during February.</p><p>The DEO reported Friday that 128,100 jobs have been added in Florida during the past year. Officially, there were 729,000 total jobless Floridians in February, out of a work force of 9,427,000.</p><p>But even with the state's economy improving, that does not necessarily mean people laid off in the past few years are finding work, said Snaith, the UCF economist.</p><p>The state's “labor-force participation rate” — the percentage of working-age Floridians with a job or looking for one — has remained at roughly 60 percent since last year, Snaith noted.</p><p>“As the labor-force participation rate rises, further declines in the unemployment rate become more difficult and will require more robust job growth,” he said.</p><p>Sarasota County posted a jobless rate of 7.2 percent last month, down from 8.2 percent in January.</p><p>Manatee's rate was 7.3 percent, down from 7.7 percent during the prior month, while Charlotte's was 7.4 percent, down from 8.1 percent.</p><p>That still represented 27,000 people who are officially unemployed in the region out of a work force of 371,733.</p>